I think there may be something to that. The poll question is so silly that it’s hard to imagine why it was included. It tries to force people who may not think that Obama deserves much credit at all to offer credit. I’d like to ask the pollsters what they had in mind by including that question. Did we ever have one like “Who do you think is more responsible for capturing Saddam Hussein? George W. Bush or John F. Kerry?” Either question’s ludicrous, and I’m curious as to whether examples exist like the one I made up.

If you’re reluctant to credit the guy in office, there’s a temptation to give a silly answer to a silly question.

The guy in office does deserve credit, IMO. Has Mr. Obama milked it a tad overmuch? I’d say so. But maybe he thinks it plays well to the electorate. Whether or not it would likely have occurred whether he or McCain was in office, Obama deserves credit for it.

This is nothing more than electioneering hyperbole by Romney. It’s a way to intro attacking teacher’s unions who contribute to the dems and the reps want it stopped. Anyone who is in any way associated with the teaching profession knows that class size does have an effect on learning but there’s many more impediments out there. Inner city schools have discipline problems leading some schools to have armed guards at the chained doors to keep out drug dealers, the pay is deplorable and most highly trained teachers burn out quickly and find other professions with less stress and more pay. Politicians often use education as a political football because teachers (despite the misinformation from media and talking points about the power of teacher unions) really don’t have control of their profession; that control, unlike the medical profession, is in the hands of the state and local boards. They set the standard for what is to be taught and they set the pay per teacher, not the unions. We may negotiate pay and working conditions, but most unions bend over backwards to accommodate them. Teachers often find themselves caught between the school board and the parents to whom we are ultimately responsible for educating their child. There are soultions to the problem of how to raise the standards and provide a more than adequate education but cutting funding for education and slamming 40 kids into a classroom isn’t one of them.

What I find incredible about Romney is that he seems to be given bad advice from his think tankers about a mélange of issues from misstatements about the middle class, minorities and immigrants, medical care for most of his constituents and continual gaffs on the campaign trail. There are highly intelligent conservatives out there (who will hopefully jerk their party back towards the center soon) who could dispense better advice then this. He had better be prepared for the first debate or go the way of Sarah Palin and end up a cartoon on South Park.

Romney’s inner core is a drive for fortune and fame. He has a fortune and now is driven to become the 1st Mormon President. He has and will say anything to any audience that he thinks best suits his purpose. His problem is that he has said so many different things to different audiences at different times, and that he has no core belief system that one would need to govern. When his audience will be all interested voters, as it will be in the debates, I can only imagine that he will be reduced to soundbites. That could be enough for voters who have an existing disdain for President Obama, as they will hear what they want to hear.

But Romney has nothing real to say about policy or governing. Whatever he says about that is not due to any core beliefs. It is about saying what he believes will get him the most votes, period. Of course this is true of most politicians, to some degree, but some politicians want to make a real difference. The difference that Romney wants to make is, primarily and overwhelmingly, to increase his own fame and fortune. Anyone who can’t see that hasn’t been paying attention, or just doesn’t want to see it.

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As a fabrication of our own consciousness, our assignations of meaning are no less “real”, but since humans and the fabrications of our consciousness are routinely fraught with error, it makes sense, to me, to, sometimes, question such fabrications.

I have changed my mind, Romney is not stupid at all. He is a grifter, a confidence gamer, a flim flam man, a rainmaker.
IOW a man totally devoid of scrupules or principles.
I wish someone would just call him out on his con-game. The pundits are just to civilized to call out this weaver and salesman of Emperor’s clothes. Get me a child that can see through this colossal scam and allow the US to return to sanity.

I have changed my mind, Romney is not stupid at all. He is a grifter, a confidence gamer, a flim flam man, a rainmaker.
IOW a man totally devoid of scrupules or principles.
I wish someone would just call him out on his con-game. The pundits are just to civilized to call out this weaver and salesman of Emperor’s clothes. Get me a child that can see through this colossal scam and allow the US to return to sanity.

Unfortunately, if he pulls it off, soon we’ll all be without clothes.

I think he is a pathological or sociopathic liar—or both. He tells whatever story he needs to tell, to get whatever result he wants. He is a very gifted liar, he obviously has been doing it for a long time, he does it without hesitation.

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Church; where sheep congregate to worship a zombie on a stick that turns into a cracker on Sundays…

I have changed my mind, Romney is not stupid at all. He is a grifter, a confidence gamer, a flim flam man, a rainmaker.
IOW a man totally devoid of scrupules or principles.
I wish someone would just call him out on his con-game. The pundits are just to civilized to call out this weaver and salesman of Emperor’s clothes. Get me a child that can see through this colossal scam and allow the US to return to sanity.

Unfortunately, if he pulls it off, soon we’ll all be without clothes.

I think he is a pathological or sociopathic liar—or both. He tells whatever story he needs to tell, to get whatever result he wants. He is a very gifted liar, he obviously has been doing it for a long time, he does it without hesitation.

You’re assuming he somehow can’t help what he’s doing. He and his ilk know exactly what they’re doing. They know there are plenty of people who won’t vote for a black man they’ve heard is a muslim, nazi, commi, socialist. They just need to give them some reason, any reason, to vote for Mitt. Doesn’t matter if it’s true or false or he switches between the two on a daily basis. It’s their strategy, not some pathological “can’t be helped” sickness. Conservatives are brilliant at being a herd, working the rest of the herd, and controlling the perceptions and actions of the herd.